994 
Th* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 12, 1922 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
There have been so many questions of 
late that it seems necessary to try to clear 
some of them up this ■week. I cannot 
possibly answer them all here. Many are 
answered by mail. I make no effort to 
classify them. 
What is this Sudan grass you tell 
about? 
Something like a giant form of millet. 
I understand it is an introduction from 
Africa. It makes good feed for all sorts 
of stock, and is better than corn fodder, 
since the stalks are much liner. We have 
it planted in drills, much like fodder corn. 
How high does it grow? 
On July 29 the best of our crop stood 
about 0 ft. high to the top, a little taller 
than Luce's Favorite corn at the same 
age. This crop was planted late in May. 
1 thiuk the best of it will reach S ft. be¬ 
fore frost. It seems to me the best bulky 
fodder crop we have ever grown. 1 think 
it would make a tine crop for growing 
•‘mulch,” or covering for strawberries. 
How do you intend to cut it? 
1 am not sure yet, but l think we will 
cut by hand, tie into small bundles, much 
as we used to cut wheat in the harvest 
held. Then these bundles may be stood 
up iu big shoeks to cure. 
What about millet? 
We expected to put in a small piece, 
largely for comparison with the Sudan 
grass, but the wet weather has made it 
impossible to he the laud. So we. *thall 
plow sod in one of our young orchards, 
smooth the land and seed millet in drills 
to be cultivated, like fodder corn. 
Does such culture pay? 
Under some circumstances it does. Wc 
have seeded oats, barley, buckwheat and 
millet in rows 2*4 ft. apart and given 
good culture. The growth is remarkable 
and the cultivation breaks up the old sod 
and fits the land well. We have plowed 
a sod iu July or August, drilled iu barley 
or millet, given good culture, and in Sep¬ 
tember seeded rye and Alsike clover right 
in the other crop. Barley is the best grain 
for a late hay crop. 
You seem a great friend of Alsike 
clover. 
I am. It has been a great friend to us, 
for it grows on our sour and wet land 
where Bed clover would not thrive. It is 
a smaller clover than Bed, and usually 
gives a smaller crop, though this year our 
Alsike was as large as any Bed I have 
seen lately. 
You talk about seeding it in turnips. 
I do. In a wet season you can grow a 
fair turnip crop and get clover well start¬ 
ed. Iu this country turnips can be grown 
after oats or early potatoes, or most gar¬ 
den crops, or in early sweet corn. This 
year we cut the oats for hay, plowed and 
fitted the ground at once, and broadcast 
White Globe turnips. We happened to be 
out of Alsike seed at the time, but this is 
a good year for using it. You would be 
surprised to see how the small seed of Al¬ 
sike works in so that after the turnips are 
pulled you have good clover. The crop 
may be cut next year for grass, or plowed 
under in the Spring. 
Does the turnip crop pay? 
Not always. When potatoes are high 
turnip is used as a substitute and will 
bring fair prices. You must take your 
chances on it. 
You have been talking about “acid le¬ 
gumes.” What do won mean by that? 
A legume is a plant which carries its 
seeds in pods, and has the strange ability 
to take nitrogen from the air. The aver¬ 
age farmer rarely has much to do with 
more than 20 of them, but there arc thou¬ 
sands of such plants iu the world. They 
supply food, fuel or lumber, dyes, gums 
and medicines. The most common that 
we know about are clover. Alfalfa, beans, 
peas, vetch, cow peas, kudzu and similar 
plants. 
But what about the acid part of it? 
Most of the common legumes require 
large quantities of lime for a full devel¬ 
opment. Thus we have come to depend 
largely upon clover and Alfalfa, and most 
of us think wc cannot make good use of 
these legumes unless we use lime freely. 
Most of our cultivated soil is quite sour 
and, as everyone knows, there is little use 
trying to grow Bed clover or Alfalfa un¬ 
less we use litre heavily. Now there are 
several of these legumes which do not 
require much lime. A few of them are 
Alsike clover, Soy beaus, cow peas, kud¬ 
zu, vetch and beggar weed—a plant quite 
largely grown at the South. 
Do you mean to say that these plants 
will grow and produce nitrogen in acid 
soil? 
Yes. I do, I .lo not mean some sour 
old swamp, but I mean such soil as is 
found in many of my fields—soil that 
will give an acid test, showing that it 
really needs lime. On such soils these 
"acid legumes” will grow and. if they are 
inoculated, will make heavy crops, and 
thus greatly improve the soil. You can 
convince yourself very easily ab.utt this 
by seeding strips of Alsike alongside Bed 
or Sweet clover on soil that you know to 
be somewhat acid. 
That ought to bo important to farmers. 
We think it is of vital importance. I 
believe there are thousands of farmers 
struggling to raise Bed clover or Alfalfa 
on soil that is fundamentally unfit for 
such crops. Let them switch over to Al¬ 
sike and Soy beaus and they would do 
better, for then they Would be suiting 
their soil. 
Why has not this idea of the acid le¬ 
gumes beeu developed? 
I do not know, hut I imagine there are 
two reasons for it, In some parts of the 
country it is already being worked out. 
It becomes a habit, mental and physical, 
to raise certain crops, When a man has, 
for years, grown Bed clover or Alfalfa, 
he finds it bard to believe that “little Al¬ 
sike” is anything mure than a toy. or 
that ihe "dried sticks" of Soy bean vines 
will ever compete with Alfalfa. It is 
hard to believe in substitutes when they 
are dressed differently from old favorites. 
In some cn.Ni-H Red Clover and Alfalfa 
have become tyrants rather than servants 
through overworking the lime theory. 
What do you mean by that? 
Much of our modern farming for the 
Eastern States has been built around the 
theory that we cannot raise suitable le¬ 
gumes without, lime. We must all agree 
ihat we cannot expect to maintain the 
fertility of our Eastern farms unless we 
use legunn's freely. The average farmer 
cannot afford to buy all his nitrogen in 
feed, fertilizer or manure. Unless lie can 
get into partnership with nature in the 
nitrogen business he is bound to go bank¬ 
rupt. And he cannot tap nature’s supply 
of nitrogen save through the legumes. 
For some reason which I do not under¬ 
stand. most nf our teachers and scien¬ 
tists have given the impression that you 
cannot succeed with . legumes- without 
heavy supplies of lime. There are many 
farmers who have soil that is naturally 
acid, and will not or cannot use lime 
freely. The acid soil legumes would be 
of great help to them, but the idea has 
never been presented to them strongly, as 
it should he done. 
IIow are prices with you this year? 
On the whole, they are low, aud I con¬ 
fess that I cannot understand it. The 
growing season has been poor, crops are 
light, and railroad shipments have been 
hurt somewhat by the strike. These 
things should have helped prices, but, in- 
>tcarl of that, most of our goods have been 
lower than usual. 
Have consumers profited by this? 
No; except in a few rare cases retail 
prices have been as high as ever. Hun¬ 
dreds of carloads of melons have come 
from California and the Southwest. Many 
were dumped out to decay, while others 
were almost given away. In some cases 
peddlers bought these melons and sold 
them cheap. Aside from a few things of 
that sort, retail prices have kept up. The 
present situation is the must, confusing 1 
have ever known. 
Have you all kept well? 
Yes, in spite of the dispiriting weather 
we have kept in good health. \Ye have 
never been so busy, uever had such a 
great family, and probably never had so 
much of what most people call “trouble.” 
but we are all right, from Rose to Uncle 
George. 
What is your secret for keeping well and 
fairly happy? 
We have no secret, nor can I give you 
any rules of conduct. We eat plain food, 
chiefly, milk, fruits and vegetables, and 
entire wheat bread and butter. There is 
always plenty of laughter and pleasant 
talking at meal time. We all get enough 
of sleep. We are .-ill reasonably content 
with our lot. If others have better cars 
or better clothes or more money or an 
easier time, we do not envy them. Our 
children have ambition. Two of them 
are at college and the rest want to go. 
All know they must work for the chance. 
TllCre is a good mixture of age and youth 
In our family. That menus responsibility, 
charity and service. We can all get much 
fun out of very simple tilings. Some¬ 
times when the situation becomes a little 
strained after a wet and nervous day. a 
group of us can pile into Ihe ear and 
hunt for some good moving picture show. 
That, usually wears off the picture of dis¬ 
couragement. It seems at times ns if 
fate had done its best to give us acid 
conditions this year, hut we try to be 
acid legumes and get the nitrogen out of 
life in spite of all. Dinner is ready 
right now. The iiicn <lc resistance today 
is a big dish of Black-eye cow peas boiled 
with pork. You can have potatoes, beets 
and tomatoes on the side. 1 have heard 
folks say that a desire for cow peas indi¬ 
cates a rather inferior social taste. Well, 
the cow pea is one of those acid legumes. 
If like produces like, this dish ought to 
help us keep cheerful under trying condi¬ 
tions. Let me fill up your plate once 
more. n, \v. c. 
Firing the Charge 
T HERE are two methods of firing a dynamite charge: 
(1) by means of cap and fuse, or (2) by means of elec¬ 
tric blasting caps and blasting machine. 
When the cap and fuse method is used the blaster must 
remember that the fuse burns at the rate of 32 to 40 seconds 
per foot, and must allow ample length of fuse to enable him 
to retire to a safe point before the explosion. Six inches of 
fuse out of the bore hole should be sufficient. 
When blasting very large stumps, where it is necessary to 
fire several charges simultaneously under the anchor roots, 
electric blasting caps and an electric blasting machine must 
be used. The electric method can also be used, of course, 
to fire a single charge. 
The diagram above illustrates these two methods. 
3 Tamping and Filling 
the Hole 
Dumorite. the new du Pont dynamite, has greatly reduced 
the cost of clearing land. 135 to 140 sticks of Dumorite 
cost the same as 100 sticks of 40% dynamite. Stick for 
stick, they have the same strength and Dumorite possesses 
also the slower heaving power of 20% dynamite, which 
makes it a better farm explosive than either 40% or 20%. 
Order Dumorite from your local dealer and 
write us for free 104-page “Farmers’ Handbook 
of Explosives.” It gives full instructions cov¬ 
ering the use of dynamite for land clearing, 
ditching and tree planting. 
E. 1. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO., Inc. 
Equitable Bldg. Fulton Bldg. Harvey Bldg. 
NEW YORK PITTSBURGH, PA. BOSTON, MASS 
The book that best expresses the senti¬ 
ment and charm of real country living 
is 
Hope Farm Notes 
cAn order came the other day from the Island of Jamaica for 
one of these books. Copies have been sent to Mexico, South 
Africa, Austria and New Zealand—all over the world. It is 
being read wherever the human heart feels a love for clean 
and wholesome country living. 
“A Civilizing Agent for Agriculture ” 
That is what one reader calls it—and he has sent five separate 
copies to people who need to know more of the human side of 
farm life. It is one of the best evidences of Good House¬ 
keeping to have this book on your table. Is it in your house ? 
The Hope Farm man will autograph your copy if you desire. 
The book should go wherever the Rural New-Yorker is taken. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 333 Wmt 30th St., New York 
GENTLEMEN—Enclosed find remittance for $1.50, for which send me, postpaid, a 
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